BASW NI discusses social work pressures with Health Minister
Speaking following the meeting at Parliament Buildings, Professor Hayes, said: “Demand is growing across all programmes of care. The result is increased pressure on social workers as they support the people who use our services. Today I outlined to Minister Nesbitt the urgent need for delivery of safe staffing legislation to ensure that we not only have enough social workers, but also that each practitioner has a manageable caseload”.
During the meeting BASW NI welcomed the recent reduction in the social work vacancy rate to 3.3%, as reported by the Department of Health. However, the Association highlighted this statistic alone fails to convey the complete picture as it includes only vacant posts actively being recruited to and omits posts unstaffed due to long term sick leave or maternity leave.
Professor Hayes continued: “Our engagement with Directors of Children’s Services indicates Gateway, Family Intervention teams and Looked After Children’s teams continue to experience stubbornly high vacancy levels of up to 40%. I stressed to the Minister the urgent need for improved support to retain social workers in frontline child protection roles, posts that are consistently among the hardest to fill.
Focused on the need to strengthen the profession, BASW NI used the opportunity to urge the Minister for Health to increase the number of commissioned social work training places and improve financial support for social work students. Additionally, the delegation noted the need for intervention to relieve pressures facing Approved Social Workers and the importance of delivering on the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
The meeting also enabled BASW NI to stress the importance of investing to improve adult social care. In concluding, Professor Hayes said: “For years, BASW NI has worked to highlight the value of adult social care and the shortsightedness of consistent failures to fund services appropriately.
“As pressures on the health service intensify, the increasingly frequent problem of hospitals being unable to discharge medically fit patients due to a lack of social care support in the community has reached crisis point. BASW NI detailed the central role social work has to play in the reform of adult social care and urged the Minister to ensure delivery in this critical area of service provision.
Contact:
Andy McClenaghan, BASW NI Public Affairs, Policy and Communications Lead
07702 517560 / a.mcclenaghan@basw.co.uk